President Buhari Ordered By Court To Account For $460 Million Chinese Loan

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has been ordered by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to account for how the $460 million Chinese loan to fund the failed Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) project was spent.

The federal government was also instructed to publish the total amount of money paid to local and Chinese companies and contractors, with details of the names of the brands and the status of the implementation of the project.

The order was reportedly given last week by Justice Emeka Nwite while giving a verdict in a Freedom of Information suit number: FHC/ABJ/CS/1447/2019 filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

The suit was filed after the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, stated that the loan was being serviced by the country and that she could provide no explanation on the project.

“We are servicing the loan. I have no information on the status of the CCTV project”, she was reported to have said.

While giving his judgment, Nwite said: “There is a reasonable cause of action against the government. Accounting for the spending of the $460 million Chinese loan is in the interest of the public.

“It will be inimical for the Court to refuse SERAP’s application for judicial review of the government’s action.

“The Minister of Finance is in charge of the finance of the country and cannot by any stretch of the imagination be oblivious of the amount of money paid to the contractors for the Abuja CCTV contract and the money meant for the construction of the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).”

He further ordered the Buhari administration to “provide the details clarifying whether the sum of N1.5 billion Naira paid for the failed contract meant to construct the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) was part of another loan obtained from China.”

“SERAP’s core objectives are to promote human rights, transparency and accountability and anti-corruption in Nigeria.

“I am of the humble view that there is a reasonable cause of action against the government [through the Minister of Finance] and I so hold that SERAP has made out a case to be entitled to the reliefs sought

“The law is well settled that where a document or letter is sent by post, it is the law that the same is taken or presumed to have been delivered”, part of the verdict reads.